‘Definitive Framework’ Of $132.5 Billion Budget Deal

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders triumphantly announced a deal on a 2011-2012 budget that “in theory” could deliver the state’s first early budget since the last time a Cuomo was in the executive mansion.

“We worked through very, very difficult issues,” the governor said. “We not only got it done, but we got a great piece of work done. I believe that.”

The governor said the budget – which spends about $250 million more than he proposed, yet still clocks in at $132.5 million overall – is a victory for New Yorkers. He called it “the people’s budget.”

But it’s also a huge win for Cuomo himself, who gets a large portion of what he wants here – thanks largely to his overwhelming popularity in the polls and the extender power bequeathed to him by former Gov. David Paterson.

Some details remain to be worked out in conference committees. Bills will start being sent up for passage on Tuesday and the budget could be early, but definitely will be passed by the April 1 deadline, the governor said. He left open the possibility of messages of necessity to circumvent the three-day aging process.

Albany hasn’t seen an early budget – one adopted before the April 1 deadline – since 1983. That was former Gov. Mario Cuomo’s first budget; 27 of the last 36 budgets have been late.

The agreement includes closure of 3,700 prison beds – up from 3,500 initially proposed – that will NOT be accomplished through a task force, but determined by the administration in consultation with the Legislature.

Cuomo said it became too complex to determine the criteria for a task force, so he and the leaders decided to “trust” one another – a point Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos reinforced.

The closures will be “geographically balanced,” Cuomo said. He did not offer any more details.

The deal also restores some $270 million in $1.5 billion worth of education aid cuts proposed by the governor. The money will be allocated in a “regionally balanced” way. Details were not immediately available and should be out tomorrow.

This $270 million includes restoration of funding for the 4201 schools and summer employment programs.

Other details of the agreement:

– $91 million for human services programs.

– $86 million for higher education, including SUNY hospitals and SUNY/ CUNY community collegs.

– $15 million for homeless programs.

– $33 million for “miscellaneous” programs, including aid to localities and agricultural programs.

– $54 million in miscellaneous cuts.

– $170 million in additional reduction for the Office of Court Administration, bringing it into line with the 10 percent being cut by the AG, comptroller and executive branch.

– The med-mal cap it OUT, but the indemnity fund for neurologically impaired infants is IN. The governor said the bulk of savings for hospital insurance will be realized this way. An administration source said the med-mal cap proposal was merely a tactic to get the indemnity fund through the Legislature, knowing the Assembly Dems would never accept it.

– Neither the property tax cap nor the rent control laws are in. Cuomo rejected the ideas that any lawmaker would vote “no” on the budget because of this, insisting: “Rent has nothing to do with the budget; things that are supposed to be in the budget are things that are supposed to be in the budget.”

– The millionaire’s tax is OUT. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he will continue to push for it. “I hope to convince my partners in government going forward that it’s the right thing to do,” the speaker said. “But again, I’ve always told you we don’t draw lines in the sand.”

– The $130 million for the governor’s regional economic development council’s is IN, but it won’t be taken from the Legislature’s unspent member items. There’s no new member item cash in this budget – just like last year.

“For someone to say: I’m going to vote again the budget because it doesn’t have rent in it. No. it was never supposed to have rent it in,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo went out of his way to lavish praise on the legislative leaders, even though he has been criticizing the Legislature – and Albany writ large – since the start of his gubernatorial campaign last spring.

“I want to thank them for their collegiality and their friendship. This was hard. I know it was hard. And they went the extra mile and they got it done. And for that I applaud them.”

“…I hope this is a template for a new era of cooperation and productivity between the executive and the Legislature. I’m hoping that this spirit of love and euphoria that I feel is infectious and grows and continues. Do you feel it, Dean? (I feel it, Skelos said). Do you feel it, Shelly? (We hope you keep feeling it, Silver responded).”

At the end of the Red Room press conference, which was full of smiles and jokes – mostly by Cuomo – the governor broke out that battleship graphic from his budget address to remind the legislative leaders of what they had avoided. With some key policy battles remaining before the session ends in June, he also reminded them: “My ship’s bigger.”